Question

I have some data like this

<div>
This
is
some text
</div>

and i want to end up with this

<div>
This is some text
</div>

I know I can search and replace for \n, but I want to limit that search for only the lines inside the <div> tag.

I have a very long HTML file with thousands of Divs, no class or ID.

How can I do this with Vim?

Answer 1

1. Start recording a macro (in register d) with qd
2. Search for an opening DIV tag with /<div (then press return)
3. Use visual mode to select everything inside the DIV with vit
4. Change the visual selection so that it doesn’t include the line with the opening tag with oj
5. Join the lines with J
6. Stop recording with q

Now you can play back the macro as many times as you need to with @d (or, for a fixed number of repetitions you can prefix it with a number, e.g. 20@d)

(This solution assumes that, as in your example, the open and close tags are always on their own lines. Also, if there is only one line of content in the DIV then the closing tag will end up on the same line as the content.)